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    Brian O'Grady (credit: Taris Smith / Louisville Bats)
    Photo: Taris Smith/Louisville Bats

    Sunday morning Reds news and notes

    Doug Gray 15

    Brian O’Grady has been on fire for the Triple-A Louisville Bats this season. After spending a week on the injured list he has picked up where he left off. And last night in the bottom of the 10th inning with the game tied and a runner on second base, O’Grady was one of the hitters the team wanted to see up there. He was hitting over .350 and slugging over .650 at time time. With numbers like that you had to like the odds, and sure enough, the former Rutgers slugger came through. But it was one of his more unlikely hits of the season, too.

    Last night saw Ibandel Isabel hit not one, but two home runs for the Chattanooga Lookouts. They went a combined 843 feet. The first homer came off of rehabbing big leaguer Freddy Peralta. Isabel now has seven home runs on the season, which puts him at the top of the Southern League leaderboard – ahead of three others who have five each. The first base prospect is hitting .269/.326/.577 on the season. He joins Josh VanMeter for players who lead their league in home runs within the Reds organization (his eight homers lead the International League).

    Jose Garcia began the season on the injured list as he was recovering from a shoulder injury. The shortstop joined the Daytona Tortugas this past week and has now played in three games. In each game he’s drawn a walk, giving him three on the season (duh). In 2018 he didn’t draw his third walk of the season until his 34th game of the season on May 18th. He also had 31 strikeouts by that point in time. After a strong showing in spring training in 2018 the Reds got aggressive with their placement of Garcia and that may have played against him a bit. He struggled, particularly early in the season – but he improved each month of the season.

    Saturday – A Night of Injuries

    Saturday night was a night that saw more than a few players exit games on the Cincinnati Reds farm system. Jonathan India, the Reds #5 prospect in the organization, was hit by a pitch in the back in his third plate appearance. He was replaced by a pinch runner. In the same game outfielder Stuart Fairchild was also replaced mid-game. There’s was no reason given for why. In Dayton it was #9 prospect Mariel Bautista that left the game early. In the first inning he walked and scored a run, sliding head first into the plate. He remained in the game for the second inning, but before the third inning began he was replaced in center field. Like Fairchild, at this point no reason was given for why he was replaced in the lineup.

    While the injury didn’t happen on Saturday night, it was reported that starting pitcher Alex Wood’s back isn’t coming soon. His back injury that’s kept him out all season had a set back after a good session on the mound while the Reds were on the west coast. John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that manager David Bell noted that Wood could seek a second opinion on his back next week.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    15 Responses

    2. Some interesting short stops in system. I believe Peraza will hold down the position A. Rodriguez moves, up and then maybe Garcia. Not a bad long term forecast.

      Tyler Mahle has to stop living upstairs.

      1. Mahle needs a breaking ball that guys need to worry about. Right now he doesn’t have one and it’s not doing him any favors unfortunately.

        1. The real question is: Why wasn’t Tyler Mahle taught to throw a breaking ball in the minors? Isn’t that part of the reasoning for a farm system, to teach and develop pitches for their pitchers?

    3. Has Josh vanmeter put on some muscle? Is he just running into fastballs? 8 hr in AAA for a 165lb second baseman seems like a lot. Is this a streak?

      1. I’ll be writing about it this week. I was hoping to get it done this weekend, but I’m on the road and there have been a few complications this weekend that’s set me back on some things, unfortunately.

        The Triple-A levels moving to the MLB baseball is helping some, I’m sure. But you’ll see in the article…. he’s not exactly been hitting wall scrapers, either. There’s some other stuff going on. I talked with him about it. Jody Davis, the Bats manager also had some stuff to say. It’ll all get to this here website place this week.

    4. Gutierrez doesn’t make it out of the first inning today. I wasn’t alone in thinking Louisville would have a stacked rotation this year. Their rotation bites. No better way to state facts. Mella is the only starter whose ERA is under 5.00. At 4.78, he’s nothing to write home about. I get it that the Reds have decided Romano & Reed have futures in the Reds bullpen & not their rotation, but Despaigne, Lopez, & Sims? Where’s their future in the scheme of things?

      1. In the pen. Reed needs to be called up. AAA doesn’t have much in the way of future starting pitching.

      1. He looked very good. He was working with an umpire who seemed to have a problem tracking a breaking ball. He was calling where the catcher caught it rather than where it went over plate. He had nice movement on fastball and really kept it down. Dragons pitchers kept throwing them a left several over the middle of the plate trying to get a call. I was glad I got to see him up close.

        1. @ Bob – what does impress you? Sounds like your a glass half empty sort of guy

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